This invention relates generally to power monitors for optical circuits.
In wavelength division multiplexing applications, a number of channels, each of a different wavelength, may be multiplexed over a single optical path, such as a waveguide or fiber. Channel power monitoring becomes increasingly important with more channels because it is necessary to ensure that each channel has sufficient power.
Power monitoring may be done through a free space optical approach where a bulk reflection grating is used to disperse light of different wavelengths for different channels. Alternatively, a planar lightwave circuit approach may be used where each channel is monitored by one tap plus one power monitor after the multiplexer. Although both approaches work well in terms of optical functionality, the former suffers from a large form factor and less integrateability with planar optical devices. The latter poses substantial process and yield challenges since a large number of monitors may be needed for high channel counts, especially in dense wavelength division multiplexing.
Thus, there is a need for better ways to monitor power in an optical wavelength division multiplexed network.